First of all, I have read what I could find in these forums as well as online, youtube, google, etc.

My ASD son is 7-1/2 years old, and was finally diagnosed at 6 with ASD after a series of tests starting from the time he was 18 months of age. Under old classifications, I am told he would fall into the "High Functioning" catagory. He gets straight A's and B's in school, and his main struggle is with social/interpersonal relations; be it from carrying on a full conversation with new people to shutting down from overstimming in busy places with too much noise. He wears noise-suppressing headphones at school most of the time to negate the latter of the aforementioned issues.

The main issue we have is when he gets a cold. My exwife (his biological mother) always had a horrible immune system, and like mother like son, he tends to get colds quite easilly. I keep him in as good of health as I can with his diet, but like many ASD persons, he is a very picky eater. Thankfully, he loves oranges, so keeping him topped up with vit C is not an issue.

After attempting everything I have found, I am still unable to teach him how to blow his nose. I understand this is fairly common and will generally get better in time, but I am looking for any new ideas that have worked for any of you that have overcome this struggle. On the occassions I do manage to get him to attempt, he always either blows from his mouth (which I have explained he needs to keep his mouth closed to get the air out of his nose) or simply says he cannot do it.

If you are trying to teach him when he has a cold it will be more difficult. My youngest struggles to breath through his nose at the best of times; something my sister had an op for in her thirties.

Start when he doesn't have a cold by getting him to breath in and breath out through his nose. Candles are good(if he is safge around them, supervised of course) to show how hard he can breath out. and the harder he can puff the air out of his nose the closer it is to blowing his nose.

I try to teach him when hes on good days as well as bad. He breathes in and out of his nose alright, and he is safe around candles but thus far has not managed to breath out of his nose hard enough to even move the flame. Usually I get a little better results working with him when he doesnt have the distraction of his step-siblings at home, but I think I will attempt some more candle time today after he is home from school. Usually we would do it fridays when they are gone to their father's, but he has some extra-curriculars this weekend that he will be occupied with.

Try getting him to make bubbles in a shallow bowl of warm water by blowing through his nose. Best to practise when he does not have a cold. Once mastered, it is a very effective way of clearing the snot out until he learns to use a tissue effectively.

Be prepared for snot being snorted into the swimming pool though !! (been there, done that, got the T-shirt .)

Sadly that option is a no-go...he panics and flails when there is water near his eyes/ears, and doesn't like his face being under water at all. Even carefully washing his hair has always been a chore in itself.

My boy won't blow his nose at all as he can't bear what comes out of it!! ( to be honest I can't really do it either). He has olbas oil on his pillow and a stick which gets waved vaguely near his nose. We then just make sure he has steamy baths to soften crustrations ( great word lol).